Day 2: Swimming, Kuta town and Balinese Dinner

Day 2
Friday, 16th November 2012

We had the usual buffet breakfast at the hotel.  Holidaying here is great because kids below 12 eat for free, unlike some other hotels that charge even for 4 year olds.

So we ate to our fullest.  This is what I started with.

Today and for the next 3 days, hubby diligently stood by the egg station and ordered me my omelette with extra cheese.  That alone can fill up the whole of my tummy, but since I'm on holiday I'm pushing my stomach muscles to its limits!

 
After a hearty breakfast, we headed to the pool again, because the weather gets very hot by 10am.  I can't recall what time we went in, but it was hot enough.  Here are some more happy pool pictures:

Doing it his way

Let's try two together.  We did this even 3 person at a time - no picture because I was the 3rd person, and Daddy was standing by at the bottom of the slide to catch us

Just look how wonderful the weather is...

After freshening up, we walked out to Kuta town to check out the shops. We went to Kuta Square (where the branded shops were - no bargaining allowed) and Kuta Art Market (where you can practice your bargaining skills there)  We didn't have much "luck" at the Market probably because we went there after lunch and the sellers were all non motivated. 

This was how William looked when we walked out.  He used Daddy's Oakley's.  Good that we have this trusty ol' stroller along in all our holidays as we can load in a tired child or our shopping loot

At night, we had pre-booked local Balinese dinner at the Hotel.  By booking early, we get IDR25,000 discount for each adult.  The kids eat for free.  So in total, this dinner cost us IDR250,000 equivalent to around RM80.  Very very reasonable!

Victoria cherish her freedom to pick and scoop her own food. 

William in deep thought. 

Throughout dinner, William won the heart of a waitress and a waiter.  The latter made a speed boat origami for him.  The waitress, whose name is Ary was very friendly, and always coming by to ensure we are fine.  She knows William's name and calls him by his name the next time we met at breakfast.

Cheers!

At night, we watch a movie together as a family.  The four of us huddled together on one bed, with the laptop hooked up to the TV.  This movie-night is something the kids really enjoy! 

Tomorrow... a whole day out for a tour to Sukawati, Ubud, Mt Batur... etc ending at Jimbaran. 

Day 1: 5D/4N Bali Holiday

We just came back from our holiday in Bali, Indonesia, as some of you may be aware from my periodic postings in Facebook.  For security reasons, I wanted to keep hushed about this trip until our return, but could not resist to share my excitement over the internet.

Anyway, without further ado (blimey, this sounds like a wedding speech!) here's my reminiscence of our holiday.   As a note, this is my first time in the land of Indonesia and surprisingly it feels nice to speak so much Bahasa in this short span of time.

Day 1
Thursday, 15th November 2012

Our taxi arrived a little past 9am as he had trouble looking for our street.  We woke a little over an hour ago, all excited for the impending holiday.  We had 2 boxes of fresh milk in the fridge left, so each of us took a glass whilst hubs and I finished off some leftover food.

Two trolleys (as usual, each child have one of their own to pull), one hardcase check in luggage and a backpack, plus our hardy old stroller (for any tired child and to keep shopping bags).

After we have checked in at KLIA, we took the train to the satellite terminal to the premier lounge where we had our brunch while waiting for our flight at 12:30pm. Nearing departure time, we checked that our gate was changed so we had to take the train ride back to the main terminal to board our flight.

The weather forecast for the duration of our holiday was supposed to be rainy and gloomy, but God is great because he answered our prayers for sun shiny weather (so much so we all got a tan now) with only a couple of short spurts of rain.

This boy have this fancy of studying the safety card everytime he boards an aeroplane.  Good habit, William.  You'll make one fine pilot one day. 

Beautiful weather awaits us at Bali - PTL

Our driver, Charlie was supposed to be waiting for us at the airport for pick up to the hotel, but he had something on so he got his friend to pick us up.  He even called his friend during our ride to the hotel, to ensure that we were safely on the way, and also spoke to hubby to ensure everything was alright.

We checked into Hard Rock Hotel around 4:40pm

This is our room for the next 5 days.

We picked a deluxe premium room that comes with two double bed - very suitable for a family with small children

Quickly after settling into our room, the kids changed into their swimming clothes to take advantage of the good weather.  A good dip and many splashes in the pool is a great way to start off our holiday!

Part of the offerings at Hard Rock Hotel swimming pool.  The kids went up and down these slides at least 50 times during our stay. 

The opening hours for the slides and kids play lasted until 6pm so it was timely also because we were getting hungry.  The sun sets an hour earlier down here in Bali too.  After showering, hubby led us to the nearby foodcourt.  There were about 10 stalls in the court and at least 20-25 waiters and waitresses were standing outside their respective stalls, each trying to catch our attention to order from them.  The moment you look at their menu, it's considered "deal done." 

To placate the kids' hunger, we ordered a chicken fried rice with special request for the fried egg to be separated.  They accommodated our request, and even the fried egg was fresh and warm. 

This is a snapper cooked with asam manis (sweet and sour style).  They fillet off the flesh and fried 'em crunchy.  We all loved this especially girl who is not always fond of eating fish.

Stirfry kangkung and beef on a steaming hot plate. 

And this is my favourite... prawns so fresh, almost every one of 'em comes with the gooey yellow "har gou" fried to perfection. 

We had another dish - the fried calamari which was nothing to shout about, so it doesn't deserve picture space here.  All in, together with a glass of sour sop drink and 3 white rice - IDR255 000 (equivalent to RM90)

We strolled back to the hotel to recharge after this. 

William's Chicken Spider Dance

Enjoy!!

I am another man's "wife"

On one occasion, my then 4 year 4 month old son saw Daddy hugging Mommy in the morning.  He was doing his little business in the bathroom when he turned around, gave us "the look" and then came almost charging in between us, giving Daddy a little push and reiterating, "My wife!!" 

And that is my little son, who doesn't really understand the meaning of "wife" except that it is a woman that a man loves very much.  It's quite cute to think that his wife, his REAL wife, though not legally and actually his wife yet, is somewhere out there, probably still in diapers if she's younger than him. 

Right now, there are days when he reminds Daddy again that Mommy is his wife, and then poor Daddy have to "bug off." 

I did explain to him that I'm his mother, and I can not be his wife, because I'm already his mother, and I'm so much older than him.  But little boys at this age... we let him be, because there will be one day that he may be even embarrassed to be seen with me (God forbid that that day will never come!)

Once, I asked him when he has a wife next time, who will he love more - me or her.  Hahaha... yes, I can be the jealous mother.  And he gives some thought before answering me, "Both.  Both the same." 

Haiyaaa... what can I say?  So diplomatic, so fair.  Although I'd like him to choose me over her, but I'm happy he answered what he did. 

That's ma boy!

Vic's Final Semester Exam Results

This round, I think many students in Vic's school have "woken up" and bucked up for the final exams... as I was told that names unknown and never a "threat" have somehow emerged in the Top 3 places for her class and another next to hers. 

However, the school does have a system to average out the students' performance and thus, you could say, "saved by the bell."

Revision revision revision

Vic says a few times during her revision period that her head is "going to crack."

Compared to the first semester, Vic put in a lot more effort here, especially in her Chinese and Science paper.  Her two dedicated grandmas helped with her revision whenever they can - Mama during her random visits and Popo over 3 weekends, sometimes taking the train up just to log in 6 hours of revision each visit with Vic.  Truly, hubby and I are very appreciative.

I managed the other subjects with Vic that are not in Mandarin.  Bahasa Malaysia was partially "sporting" questions based on guidelines given (on what to read) and the other part based on one's own comprehension and composition.  English was a breeze as the standard taught in Chinese-medium schools are somewhat pre-school level.  Can you believe that they are learning spelling on simple words like "run, hat, noodle, cook... etc"?

As for Science, it was a revision for her and a new lesson for me.  Maths was also an easy paper to revise as she had to cover two topics only - time and money.  Whenever we have the chance, I let her count out the money and pay at the cashier.

On top of all these, she have her usual tuition - thank God for a good tutor too.

For the first semester, Vic's revision was nothing more than a week and that was also a quick glance through.  I didn't want to push her too hard too, since it was her first official exam.  I guess the other parents thought the same, therefore Vic breezed through with 3rd place in her class.

2nd Semester

But this round, we were surprised at some results.  For example, a boy who was never in the top nor had Vic and her Top Student friend ever mentioned him before, clinched the No.1 spot in her class for this semester.  Her Top Student friend was obviously relegated to the second placing, whereas another friend leaped more than 5 spots to clinched the 3rd place.  Vic dropped from 3rd to no.15 in class.

Her marks were mainly in the 80s and 90s region.

Overall

On average and overall - her Top Student friend maintained 1st spot and Vic took the 10th place.  Phew... still Top Ten.  In the whole school, Vic is still in the top one-third percentile, with an average score that dropped 5 points from the first semester.  However, that 5 points meant 33 places away.  So, why all these analysis?  Just trying to understand how the Standard One students fare in her school.  Obviously there are many, many smart kids there.

I asked Vic if she was happy with her results, and she said no.  I think that was the answer I was looking for too.  She needed to feel the disappointment in order to motivate herself to improve next year.  I was afraid that she may be too lackadaisical as she can be with her school work.  This time, I don't say much - probably a good thing as I didn't want her to feel bad neither do I want to let her think this is acceptable.

There is still room for improvement - but for this round, it's still a "Well Done, Vic."

Honest to the bone, I wouldn't be able to score as well as she did if I put myself in her position. 

So with the exam over and results out, the kids in her class have been relaxed everyday, with no homework, hardly any teaching and occasional games and dances.  Speaking of which, Vic's class have once danced to the latest hit song, PSY's Gangnam Style and another time as a whole school in the assembly hall during Children's Day.  I almost shake my head as this never happened during my time, except that it's rather funny to imagine this.

Even my shy girl and her friend sang this song in the car on the way back, complete with the chorus of "Ooohhhh... sexyyy laddyyy" So, what do you think - a bad influence to primary students or just mere fun? 

Giving away his pet

Most kids would have dogs, tortoises, fishes or even cats for pets.  But my son, William, he has a rather unique one, however I can't say it's exotic.

Here's a little history

Some of you may know that we rear fishes in the houses.  We started humbly with this then upgraded to this, which was a beautiful aquarium bought for me by my husband when he was courting me.

And here is an old post when one of Vic's fish, fondly named Skinny swam to fish heaven.

When the old aquarium motor started to break down, we decided to buy a whole new aquarium instead of fixing the motor (as with these days, it's not worth repairing if a brand new model costs only a little more).

We had for a good time, 8 or 9 beautiful gold fishes that survived until one started to die, and we added a new one, and then the rest of the community started to go belly up on us one by one.  That's when we decided to go for different breeds of fishes (because the kids loved choosing different fishes from the pet shop).  Sometimes we find one or two fishes mysteriously disappeared and then discovering only skeleton bones in a corner.  Yes, fish can carnivorous too! 

And now...

Slowly, we decided to just focus on guppies, supposedly more hardly and breeds fast.  I was rather ambitious, thinking we can save some ringgits by breeding our very own guppies. 

Picture downloaded from the internet

Breed we did, but it was not easy as sometimes there'd be miscarriages, or if we were too late to separate the would-be mother, the baby fries were eaten by the other fishes. 

The guy in black

With the guppies, came a scavenger for the aquarium.  We had a couple of scavengers that died during its tenure of service with us, and one that mischievously ate up the other fishes and ended up back at the fish shop thereafter!  From the beginning, William has claimed that the scavenger is his pet, not the fishes.  He would proudly carry the bag of scavenger home when we buy one.  We found it cute, because he was only 3-4yo then. 

Now that William's 4.5yo, and hardly speaks about his scavenger anymore, I thought it'd be easy to give away the fishes (and scavenger, of course) and put away the aquarium altogether.  This is because the new sofa is longer than the old, and therefore we had to move the side table that holds the aquarium to another part of the living room - temporarily. 

Like giving away something closed to us, we wanted to find the fishes a good home, preferably with kids and good owners who will give them clean water and some decorations to swim in / with.  We had a few offers, and finally decided to pass to a good friend.

I remembered having told William previously that the fishes will have to go now that the new sofa is in.  We can't keep them there forever because that corner is not really a place for an aquarium, moreover the Christmas tree will have to come up soon. 

Last night, when we finally put our intention to action, William was fine when we transferred the fishes to a container, until it came to the scavenger.  HIS scavenger.  

We did not expect him to be this emotional.  And I got emotional too.  Because I so wanted to clear that corner, and here my son... my 4.5yo son was being overly sentimental (oopss, sound like me?) over a scavenger.  We toyed over various options including giving away just the fishes, and keeping the scavenger alone in another container outside the house (but that literally meant a slow death for him as there will be no waste for him to eat).

For the first time in his life, he really protested against my decision.  Vic was fine giving away the pets and just sat watching the two of us.  Hubby decided to let the two of us work things out.

After a good 10 minutes of tears (from him, NOT me) in protest of giving away his pet, I gave in. 

Sigh.  Sacrifices of a mother. 

I sulked for a bit until hubby successfully put a smile back on my face.  : )  But the aquarium is still going ok...



  

And this is our new sofa...

So here's our new sofa... fits all our specs and makes the livingroom look more spacious because it's a L design, unlike the previous day bed + 3 seater.

The dimensions are just right, without customization. However, this shop does all sorts of customization if you prefer different legs, length, firmness and even dimensions (which means a whole new look). I understand they charge a customization fee of RM500 but as with all things in Malaysia, this is negotiable.

This L shape is 10.5feet in length and the L measures up to 6.5ft. The beautiful part is it comes with 6 stools - 3 on each side of the arm rest so it saves space. When we have many guests, we just pull out the stools, voila!

Besides the stools, I like the armrests.  It measures around 8inches, and just nice for my laptop and ipad to rest as I do my work.

I'd say the kids' favourite would be the headrest.  As with many sofa these days, it's adjustable.  So that suits us very nicely.  If pushed all the way down, it becomes flat and that's where the kids lay or sit (yes, they have taken the sofa to greater heights).

Another version comes with extendable seats but we didn't want that.

So all in, after haggling... I think we got quite a good bargain considering the quality and workmanship is commendable... and comes with 10 year warranty too - even the armrest!

The kids can now put their bags on the sofa, and Vic can sit on the sofa with her soiled uniform after school, WITHOUT the mother screaming at them.  Maid is happy too that she don't have to vacuum and wash the covers anymore.